quick question

The shaft is supposed to spin freely in 2wd. The front axle has a CAD (Central Axle Disconnect) which allows the axles to spin without turning the pinion and ring gear. Its Dodge's cheap design of hubs. Let us know more about the clunking noise :

My truck "clunks" really loud as well when disengaging 4 wheel drive. My clunk is the CAD disengaging and I'm guessing that's causing yours as well.

ok, i took it for a ride and it clunks intermittenly (sp) and forward and reverse. you can feel it in the 4wd shift lever and deffinatly hear it. it happens in both 2 and 4 wd. i had it in4wd and it popped out of gear when i put the vehicle in reverse and made that grinding sound but when i put alittle pressure on the lever the sound stopped. also i think the drivers side wheel bearing is bad since we jacked it up and it made a clunking noise when i spun the tire by hand. we took it in to a local shop since we coulnt figure it out. still curios though as to waht it can be.

If the clunk is coming from the transfer case it could be a wore out chain. Be sure to check the front and rear axle backlash though too as this will make a clunk sound putting it in gear.

i checked those and they felt good. no excessive play at all. it clunkcs as your driving, not just going from park to revers or into drive.

sounds like the unit hub to me, what about the axle u joints? ball joints? tre's?

everything checked out. im thinking its the hub as well but would that cause it to pop in the tcase?

probably not, but are you sure it is the t-case? i cant tell from your wording of it, does it make the noise then shifting the t-case or is it all the time?

it happens all the time whether in 2wd or 4wd. it just started the other day when he put his plow on from my understanding. the hub was making a pretty bad noise and you can feel the clunk through the shift lever for the tcase. whether or not its actually coming from there i dont know. the tcase was about a quart low so i filled it back up.

turns out the drivers side hub a$$embly was cracked. hopefully thats what caused this dilema.